Revolutionary Days

The Eve of Bloody Sunday

Inour account of the movement’s progress we stopped at the point at which, on
the initiative of Gapon, the procession of the working-class masses to the
Winter Palace to present a “petition” to the tsar for convening a
Constituent Assembly was set for Sunday, January 9. By Saturday, the 8th, the
strike in St. Petersburg had become a general strike. Even official reports
placed the number of strikers at 100-150 thousand. Russia had never yet
witnessed such a gigantic outbreak of the class struggle. The whole industrial,
business, and public life of the great centre with its population of one and a
half million was paralysed. The proletariat showed by deeds that modern
civilisation owes its existence toitand toit alone, that
its labour creates wealth and luxury and that upon it rests our whole
“culture”. The city found itself without newspapers, without
lighting, and without water. And the general strike bore a clearly defined
political character; it was a direct prelude to the revolutionary events.

Aneyewitness thus describes the eve of the historic day in a letter addressed
to us:

“Beginningwith January 7 the strike in St. Petersburg became a general
strike. Not only all the big factories and mills, but many workshops came to a
standstill. Today, January 8, not a single newspaper, except forPraviteistvenny Vestnik[2]andVedomosti S. Peterburgskovo

			Gradonachalstva,[1]has appeared. The leadership of the movementis still in the hands of the Zubatovists. We are witnessing an unprecedented
scene in St. Petersburg, and the suspense makes one’s heart contract with fear
as to whether the Social-Democratic organisation will be able to take the
movement into its own hands, at least after a while. The situation is extremely
grave. Throughout these past days mass meetings of workers are daily taking
place in all city districts at the headquarters of the ’Association of Russian
Workers’. The surrounding streets are filled with thousands of workers. From
time to time the Social-Democrats make speeches and distribute leaflets. They
are received on the whole sympathetically, although the Zubatovists
try to set up an opposition. When the autocracy is mentioned, the Zubatov people
shout: ’We don’t care about that, the autocracy doesn’t stand in our way!’ On
the other hand, the speeches which the Zubatovists make at the ’Association’
headquarters contain all the Social-Democratic demands, beginning with the
eight-hour day and ending with the convocation of a Constituent Assembly on the
basis of equal and direct suffrage by secret ballot. Only the Zubatovists assert
that the granting of these demands implies, not the overthrow of the autocracy,
but the bringing of the people closer to the tsar and the elimination of the
bureaucracy, which stands between the tsar and the people.

“TheSocial-Democrats address meetings, too, in the headquarters of the
Association, and their speeches are listened to sympathetically; but the
initiative in practical proposals comes from the Zubatovists. Despite the
objections of the Social-Democrats, these proposals are adopted. They boil down
to the following: on Sunday, January 9, the workers are to go to the Winter
Palace and, through the priest Georgi Gapon, hand the tsar a petition listing
all the demands of the workers and ending with the words, ’Give us all this or
we must die’. Those who direct the meetings add: ’If the tsar refuses, then our
hands will be untied; for it means that he is our enemy, and then we will come
out against him and unfurl the red banner. If our blood is shed, it will be upon
his head.’ The petition is being adopted everywhere. The workers swear that they
will come out into the square on Sunday ’with their wivesand children’. Today the petition is going to be signed by districts, and at 2
      o’clock all are to assemble at the ’People’s House’ for the final meeting.

“Allthis is taking place with the full connivance of the police, who have
been everywhere withdrawn, although some buildings have mounted gendarmes hidden
in the yards.

“Todaythe streets are placarded with notices from the City Administrator
banning meetings and threatening the use of armed force. The workers tear them
off. Troops are being drawn up into the city from the environs. The tramway
employees (conductors and drivers) have been forced to go to work by Cossacks
with drawn sabres.”

[1]St. Petersburg City Administration News.—Ed.

[2]Praviteistoenny Vestnik (Government Herald)—anewspaper, official organ of the tsarist government; published in
St. Petersburg
 between 1869 and 1917.